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Thread: Command of the Sea

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    Command of the Sea

    Command of the Sea

    Geopolitical Futures has gotten back onto RealClearWorld. This article is about the foundation of American national security- its command of the sea.

    Command of the sea is the foundation of American national security. Adm. Alfred Thayer Mahan, the greatest strategist in American history, identified it as the core American interest (though he wrote before the war on terrorism began and before the development of nuclear weapons). The United States, he argued, can be threatened only by an enemy naval force that could both invade its territory and curb its access to the oceans. Therefore, the foundation of America’s national security, as with Britain’s, had to be the command of the sea.


    Indispensable Sea Lanes


    Command of the sea guarantees security and trade. Ancient Rome certainly understood as much, focused as they were on controlling Mare Nostrum (or Our Sea, referring to the Mediterranean), which forced North African threats like Carthage to attack Rome on its flanks and ensured access to Egyptian crops. The land routes around the Mediterranean were powerful but slow. The naval routes were rapid but lighter, and commercially, they were indispensable.


    China and Iran are now trying to secure their sea lanes, or at least deny others access to them. For China, now a massive trading power, access to the world’s seas is an economic necessity. Its fear is that the United States could try to blockade China and, in doing so, strangle the Chinese economy (and keep in mind, the worst-case scenario is historically not the least likely one). Iran, which is hobbled by U.S. sanctions, does not have the political or naval power to break the blockade, but it does have the wherewithal to launch a counter-blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The vast amounts of oil flowing through the strait are essential to many U.S. allies, and successfully blocking the strait would cause an economic crisis followed by a crisis in the alliance. Sanctioning Iran, therefore, might prove too costly for the United States. So long as trade is carried out on the seas, control of the seas is essential.


    Historically, command of the sea depended on surface vessels, powered by oars, sails, coal, oil and so forth. The operational principle of national power was the possession of a sufficient fleet to overwhelm the enemy primarily in size and weaponry. The high point of this ancient concept of naval warfare was the battleship, a massive and expensive vessel, carrying a handful of guns able to fire large munitions at long range. Surface warfare had reached its peak with the battleship. Its cost would cripple a mid-sized country’s economy. It could defeat any ship it encountered, save another battleship. The race was in size, armor and munitions, and whichever country had the most could protect its maritime interests.


    The foundation of naval tactics was therefore the surface vessel against the surface vessel. This was replaced not by any advancement in the power of battleships but by the introduction of a new concept in naval warfare: air power. Whereas battleships fought by firing salvos of large shells at enemies, aircraft could fire small explosive shells that impacted the surface and torpedoes that hit battleships below the waterline. Another threat came from submarines.
    Command of space is becoming the foundation of the command of the sea. Those who can see enemy missiles can destroy them and do so rapidly with longer-range hypersonics. Space denial, therefore, would be essential to protecting merchant vessels from enemy attack. We are not far from this reality. The satellites and UAVs exist, and new generations of hypersonic missiles are appearing. The command of the sea shifted from the surface of the sea to the air and is now shifting from the air into space. It does not change the core geopolitics, but it does transform war.
    Read the rest at the link.
    Last edited by Peter1469; 07-12-2019 at 12:13 PM.
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    So what this seems to be saying is once again Trump is right.

    We need the Space Force? Funny how that works.
    "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining"----Fletcher in The Outlaw Josey Wales

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    Quote Originally Posted by Admiral Ackbar View Post
    So what this seems to be saying is once again Trump is right.

    We need the Space Force? Funny how that works.

    trump-space-force-logos-email.jpg
    "Don't piss down my back and tell me it's raining"----Fletcher in The Outlaw Josey Wales

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    The old thalassocracy versus tellurocracy.
    Whoever criticizes capitalism, while approving immigration, whose working class is its first victim, had better shut up. Whoever criticizes immigration, while remaining silent about capitalism, should do the same.


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    My neocon in training. Earning yer stripes, Pete, great stuff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ransom View Post
    My neocon in training. Earning yer stripes, Pete, great stuff.
    Mahan predated Neocons by 60+ years.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Admiral Ackbar View Post
    So what this seems to be saying is once again Trump is right.

    We need the Space Force? Funny how that works.
    Why do we need a space force when we already have a navy and an air force? Some reason space-based operations cannot be handled by those two branches of the military? Perhaps a joint-force consisting of the navy and the air force? No need to create a whole new bureaucracy. Just work with what we already have.
    Power always thinks it has a great soul, and vast views, beyond the comprehension of the weak. And that it is doing God service when it is violating all His laws.
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    Bring the large concentrations of ground forces home but maintain a strong navy. That is the most simplified version of my foreign policy beliefs.
    Power always thinks it has a great soul, and vast views, beyond the comprehension of the weak. And that it is doing God service when it is violating all His laws.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ethereal View Post
    Why do we need a space force when we already have a navy and an air force? Some reason space-based operations cannot be handled by those two branches of the military? Perhaps a joint-force consisting of the navy and the air force? No need to create a whole new bureaucracy. Just work with what we already have.
    If we kept those activities within the Air Force and Navy those agencies would have more power to fund or not fund them than it there was a separate force. That is the argument. I am not for a separate space force.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ethereal View Post
    Why do we need a space force when we already have a navy and an air force? Some reason space-based operations cannot be handled by those two branches of the military? Perhaps a joint-force consisting of the navy and the air force? No need to create a whole new bureaucracy. Just work with what we already have.
    Why do we need a Marine Corps? Why do we need two armies? Why can't Air Force pilots fly off carriers? Why all the specialization?
    Liberals are a clear and present danger to our nation
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